Berlin is a city Catherine Hokin knows well. It’s the setting for many of her novels. But it’s a city that’s always changing, even though it’s soaked through with history, and there have been many Berlins, some only imagined. Here, Catherine goes in search of the lost cities of Berlin. When I first developed the […]
The Secret Hotel in Berlin by Catherine Hokin
In Berlin in 1944, Lili Rodenberg and her husband Marius run the Edel, Berlin’s most glamorous hotel. For its wealthy guests, it is an escape from the destruction outside, with its elegant piano bar and fine amber brandy. But Lili is Jewish, a secret she is terrified will end in tragedy for her and their […]
The Vulcan and the Straits by Patrick Larsimont
It’s Autumn, 1942, and fighter pilot Jox McNabb has survived the desert and the second battle of El Alamein, but now No 111 Squadron is heading into a fresh new storm. They embark on Operation Torch, the invasion of Vichy North Africa, but adverse weather conditions make flying almost impossible. And their commanding officer, Tony […]
Munich Wolf by Rory Clements
In 1935 Munich is a magnet for young, aristocratic Britons who come to learn German, swim in the lakes and drink beer in the cellars. What they don’t see — or choose to ignore — is the brutal underbelly of the Nazi movement which considers Munich its spiritual home. When a high-born English girl is […]
Why do we remember D-Day?
Even after 80 years people remember D-Day. Adrian Goldsworthy, author of Hill 112, which is set during the Normandy landings, examines why we do — and dispels some myths surrounding this memorable turning point in the Second World War. D-Day. 6 June, 1944, Operation Overlord and the invasion of France by the Western Allies led […]
Historia review: Munich Wolf by Rory Clements
Alan Bardos reviews Munich Wolf, the first in a new series of Second World War spy novels by Rory Clements. He finds it “engaging and well researched“. Hot on the heels of Rory Clements’s fantastic Tom Wilde espionage novels, comes his new series featuring Detective Sebastian Wolff. Staying in the pre-war era of the first […]
Agent Zo by Clare Mulley
This is the incredible story of Elżbieta Zawacka, the WW2 female resistance fighter known as Agent Zo, told here for the first time. Agent Zo was the only woman to reach London from Warsaw during the Second World War as an emissary of the Polish Home Army command. In Britain she became the only woman […]
Historia interview: Clare Mulley
Acclaimed biographer Clare Mulley’s latest book, Agent Zo: the Untold Story of Fearless WW2 Resistance Fighter Elżbieta Zawacka, is published on 16 May, 2024. Clare talks to novelist Carolyn Kirby about the long and remarkable life of Elżbieta Zawacka, or Agent Zo, Polish freedom fighter and one of most successful female spies of the Second […]